Instinct is traditionally abstract and intangible. Some people have a natural inclination to trust theirs. Others must cultivate the relationship. Many, instead, opt to borrow it from friends, family or colleagues. But Instinct now comes in a convenient and palpable new physical form — a book.

Instinct is my new photography monograph — a collection of 70 “street” photographs, culled from a two-year, pavement-pounding, photographic examination of humans simply being. Each image is a small part of a greater whole, forming a photographic sequence that suggests numerous compelling stories. The viewer writes the words.

Instinct, in its current form, is a maquette. It’s a prototype in search of a publisher — one who grasps the concept, appreciates the content, and realizes that reproduction quality is a key ingredient in the success of the monograph.

Instinct, the maquette, is self-published via Blurb. Blurb’s CMYK-based, on-demand printing methodology is not optimized to produce strikingly crisp and vibrant black & white images. Instead, it produces slightly murky, grey images with a decided color cast. In spite of these shortcomings, I have decided to allow my readers to purchase their own copies of the Instinct maquette.

Instinct, the intangible abstract, will force you to question why you should purchase a maquette when a commercial publication will deliver higher quality reproductions at a reduced price. I can think of two reasons:

1. Instinct may never get picked up by a commercial publisher. This maquette may be your only chance to own this collection of images presented in this form. In this scenario, Instinct is a pleasure purchase.

2. Instinct may actually entice a commercial publisher. If this happens, I will pull the maquette off the market — instantly transforming any existing maquette into a rare and potentially valuable possession. In this scenario, Instinct is an investment.

Instinct, the maquette, is available for sale RIGHT HERE on blurb.com:

Instinct, yours, is hopefully telling you to go ahead and order it. Check out the following ‘teaser’ ad, if you need a little extra nudge:

ABOUT THESE PHOTOS: The Untitled cover photograph on “Instinct” was shot using a Leica M9 with a v4 35mm f/2 Summicron lens. The video presentation was prepared in Final Cut Pro, and the music was composed and performed specifically for this video by grEGORy simpson, using Ableton Live and numerous software instruments.

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